My old mum now lives in a care home in Wales on the edge of Brecon Beacons which is a long way from my home in Washington DC. She has full blown Alzheimer’s and gets tired if you spend a long time with her, so when I visited her in September 2009, I chose to spend a hour a day for 4 days rather than spending half a day with her.
What then to do with the remainder of 5 days in South Wales?
South Wales I discovered has a great deal to offer:
• Offa’s Dyke (a 10 day hike)
• The Brecon Way (a 5 day hike)
• The Presili Hills and Carn Menyn the acclaimed source of the Stonehenge Blue Dolerite stones
• The Dan Yr Ogof Show caves
• The Roman Ruins at Caerloen
Clearly there was enough to keep me busy during my down time, in fact, more than enough so I had to make some decisions. I had rented a car for this trip, so a series of one day hikes seemed the best solution given my constraints.
So here was my Challenge, 5 hikes in 5 days

View Day Hikes in Wales in a larger map
I identified 2 sections of Offa’s dyke, two circuit hikes in the Beacons, and a route through the Presili that took in a stone circle, a Hill top fort and Carn Menyn, the Dan Yr Ogof Caves and Caerloen Roman ruins
During the rest February and March I will try to chronicle my trip to South Wales

About Me

Born in Sussex, Moved to Dorset, Oklahoma, Florida, Texas, Washington DC, Virginia, Kansas, Virginia (again), Maryland, California, Wales, Dorset (again), Virginia (again). If you can follow that you see I have emigrated 3 times. I really love the UK and this site is about that, but I have lived more time in the USA.
While in the USA I have done many interesting hikes and the US has lots of natural history and a great many parks, The Appellation trail, the Shenandoah, the Blue Ridge, the Grand Canyon Utah’s great parks, Colorado and the Rocky Mountains, none of them stand up the diversity of the British coastline, and in recent years I have been coming back more and more to explore them.
The more I explore the British coast, and enjoy the natural right to be able to hike along it, the more I want to do it, so this website explores my dream.